Tag: #legacy

I admire my grandmother, she was a strong woman who lived her life in direct service to her community. She lived in Cook MN, where she was the head Nurse in the small-town hospital for her entire career of over 40 years. This town has a population of around 600 people and you can bet that with over 40 years of serving her community she has had interactions with most everyone in her area.

Legend says she delivered babies by herself and knew more than some of the doctors that passed through the hospital halls. This does not surprise me, she was smart, kind and dedicated to caring for others. My grandmother Ema Dee spent her whole life in service to her community even delivering Meals on Wheels the morning of the day she passed away.

We say people are strong because they do the things that others can’t or won’t. Strong people see things and experience events that leave others changed and not always for the better. My grandmother was strong yet soft, her words were not harsh, her touch was gentle, and her patience was that of a Saint. She had diplomacy that I strive to reach myself. She knew how to keep the peace in her family and in her career.

After her passing I retreated into my own family, I finally saw that time was the most important gift you can give someone. She lived a full life, with a large family, many friends in her community, a successful career to feel good about. She took care of my grandfather who had ailing health and dementia until she passed, she cared for others until the very last moment of her life.

This makes me think, “What was her motivation? Why would she work so tirelessly for seemingly no reward or benefit to herself?”

I pondered these questions for years, I didn’t get it until I got it. My grandmother was a devout Catholic, she believed in her role as part of the greater good. We are all connected by our souls, it does not matter how much money you have, how successful you are, or what kind of house you live in. What matters to the higher power is that you do something that benefits the greater good of the world around you.

You don’t have to spend your entire life in service like my grandmother did, but we can learn from her and strive to bring light to our family or our community instead of the opposite. I am far from perfect and no Saint, but what I am is a good person who is compassionate for those who are less fortunate, a voice for those who cannot speak, a soldier of love and light. I feel like it is my purpose to carry on her legacy of caring for my community in my own way, doing what it is that I know how to do. Just being me.

Many people believe that they don’t matter, nothing they do will help, much less have any chance of changing the world for the better. I find this sad, and untrue! What if we could? What if just by being the best you, you can be; you do help the world in some way? What if we believed who we are and what we do matters in this big world? I believe the world would be a much kinder place if we all tried even a little.

I was named after my grandmother Ema Dee who was often called Emy for short. My mom tells me grandma showed up right before I was to be delivered into this world and that was why she decided to name me Emy. Grandma was always there for her family, she was consistent in her persistent love. She lived her faith through her actions not her words, that is what I love and miss about her the most. It is also something I strive to emulate for my own life.

She didn’t plan or try to be, but my grandmother is my hero and someone I admire for doing what is right even if it is hard. She was just her, doing what she knew how to do best, showing up, helping, caring and accepting her role she had been given in this lifetime to fill a void in the need of the greater good. She lived simply but had a powerful impact on those around her, just being her.

Who we admire says a lot about who we are and what we value. It took me a long time before I was able to look past the monetary success or fame that dazzles most of us. I have had chances to meet people I admire and was sorely let down by their character and no longer dazzled by dollars. People are just people no matter how much they have or how little they have. What matters to me is who they are inside.

Who do you look up to? Why do you look up to them? What do you do to try to be like your idol? Do you do your thing your own way or do you copy them exactly? Do you admire their character or their success?